One by one, homes in Calif. subdivision sinking

ASSOCIATED PRESS

May 12, 2013 12:01 AM

In this photo taken Monday, May 6 2013, Randall Fitzgerald checks a fissure that has opened in a lot near his home in the Lakeside Heights subdivision in Lakeport, Calif. Fitzgerald, who bought his home a year ago, has seen several of his neighbors move away as the sinking ground threatens the collapse of their homes, and is concerned that he will have to leave as more fissures appear. Officials believe that water that has bubbled to the surface is playing a role, in the collapse of the hillside subdivision that has forced the evacuation of 10 homes and the notice of imminent evacuation of another 10 in this upscale subdivision.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)AP

ASSOCIATED PRESS

May 12, 2013 12:01 AM

LAKEPORT, Calif. -- Scott and Robin Spivey had a sinking feeling that something was wrong with their home when cracks began snaking across their walls in March.

The cracks soon turned into gaping fractures, and within two weeks their 600-square-foot garage broke from the house, and the entire property -- manicured lawn and all -- dropped 10 feet below the street.

It wasn't long before the houses on both sides collapsed as the ground gave way in the Spiveys' neighborhood in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San Francisco.

"We want to know what is going on here," said Scott Spivey, a former city building inspector who had lived in his four-bedroom, Tudor-style dream home for 11 years.

Eight homes are now abandoned and 10 more are under notice of imminent evacuation as a hilltop with sweeping vistas of Clear Lake and the Mount Konocti volcano swallows the subdivision built 30 years ago.

The situation has gotten so bad that mail delivery was ended to keep carriers out of danger.

"It's a slow-motion disaster," said Randall Fitzgerald, a writer who bought his home in the Lakeside Heights project a year ago.

Unlike sinkholes of Florida that can gobble homes in an instant, this collapse in hilly volcanic country can move many feet on one day and just a fraction of an inch the next.

Officials believe water that has bubbled to the surface is playing a role in the destruction. But nobody can explain why suddenly there is plentiful water atop the hill in a county with groundwater shortages.

"That's the big question," said Scott De Leon, county public works director. "We have a dormant volcano, and I'm certain a lot of things that happen here (in Lake County) are a result of that, but we don't know about this."

Other development on similar soil in the county is stable.

While some of the subdivision movement is occurring on shallow fill, De Leon said a geologist has warned that the ground could be compromised down to bedrock 25 feet below.

"Considering this is a low rainfall year and the fact it's letting go now after all of these years, and the magnitude that it's letting go, well it's pretty monumental," De Leon said.

County officials have inspected the original plans for the project and say it was developed by a reputable engineering firm then signed off on by the public works director at the time.